Ethyl lactate is a hydrophilic solvent produced from bio-renewable sources (bioethanol and lactic acid produced from corn fermentation) that is considered as a “green” solvent due to its extremely low toxicity, biodegradability and negligible eco-toxicity.

This work focuses on the utilization of ethyl lactate to form aqueous two-phase systems (ATPS) in the presence of inorganic salts for the extraction of antibiotics from aqueous solutions. The performance of three thiosulfate salts (Na₂S₂O₃, K₂S₂O₃ and (NH₄)₂S₂O₃) as salting-out media for the extraction of chloramphenicol and tetracycline from their aqueous solutions was examined. In this respect, cloud points for the ternary solutions composed of ethyl lactate, water and salt were determined at atmospheric pressure (0.1 MPa) and 298.2 K. Partition coefficients of chloramphenicol and tetracycline between the two phases were determined by chemical analysis of phases in equilibrium for different initial compositions at 298.2 K. This paper is the first report to demonstrate the ability of the ATPS based on ethyl lactate to efficiently separate antibiotics. Thus, ATPS based on ethyl lactate represents a new and green platform for the extraction of antibiotics from aqueous solutions which can facilitate their detection, identification and quantification in surface waters as well as their extraction from fermentation broths.

乳酸乙酯是一种由生物可再生来源（玉米发酵产生的生物乙醇和乳酸）产生的亲水性溶剂，由于其极低的毒性，可生物降解性和可忽略的生态毒性而被视为“绿色”溶剂。

这项工作的重点是在无机盐存在下利用乳酸乙酯形成含水两相系统（ATPS），以从水溶液中提取抗生素。三种硫代硫酸盐（Na ₂ S ₂ O ₃，K ₂ S ₂ O ₃和（NH ₄）₂ S ₂ O _3的性能）作为盐析介质，用于从氯霉素和四环素的水溶液中提取氯霉素和四环素。在这方面，由乳酸乙酯，水和盐组成的三元溶液的浊点是在大气压（0.1 MPa）和298.2 K下确定的。氯霉素和四环素在两相之间的分配系数是通过平衡状态下相的化学分析确定的对于298.2 K时不同的初始成分，本文是首次报道。该论文证明了基于乳酸乙酯的ATPS有效分离抗生素的能力。因此，基于乳酸乙酯的ATPS代表了一种新的绿色平台，可用于从水溶液中提取抗生素，从而有助于其检测，